Funded Futures Network vs ROMER

What Funded Futures Network sells

Funded Futures Network, which calls itself FFN, sells evaluations for CME Group futures and nothing else. Each account comes with its own Rithmic login, and the platforms page sums up the offer as “Every account includes free data and your own Rithmic login.” New traders can choose between two account types.

MAX Standard is billed monthly. When we checked the accounts page on 1 October 2026, the 50K was listed at $160 a month. It has a $3,000 profit target, a $2,000 drawdown that trails the end-of-day balance, and needs five winning days of at least $150 each. Hitting the $1,250 daily loss limit flattens your positions and locks the account for the rest of the session without failing it (MAX specifications). No single session may supply more than 40% of the target, and going over raises the target instead of failing you.

STEADY replaced Express MAX on 1 July 2026. “STEADY is a one-time payment. No subscription, no renewals,” says its help article. The 50K costs $229 and keeps the $3,000 target and $2,000 trailing drawdown, with no daily loss limit, two winning days of $150 or more, and a 52% consistency rule in the evaluation only.

FFN’s pages disagree about activation fees. The configurator shows “No activation fee after passing” on both account types, while a help article on sizes and monthly costs still says “Activation to funded costs $120 unless waived by a promotion.”

Positions can’t be held overnight. Asked whether they can, the trading hours article answers “No. All accounts at FFN are day-trade only,” and you have to be flat by 4:50 PM ET.

The 5-second rule and FFN’s automation terms

FFN’s FAQ says “Automated trading is allowed but at the discretion of FFN.” Its next sentence is the warning: “Any traders implementing HFT trading bots or attempting to exploit the simulated environment will lose access to their account.” The independent trading rules permit automated strategies “provided they execute the registered account holder’s own strategy”, and they prohibit “Granting access to any automated system or API controlled by a third party rather than by you.” One strategy may run on up to five of your own accounts at a time (copy trading limits).

FFN puts a number on HFT. Its HFT policy reads: “No more than 30% of trades placed within a single trading session may have a round-trip duration of at or under 5 seconds.” It then adds, “This rule applies to both manual and automated trading strategies.” A breach fails the account and forfeits its profits, with no appeal. A scalping or market-making algo that closes most positions within a few seconds would break it in its first session. Other firms draw the line in other places, as our page on what counts as HFT shows.

A VPS is fine if it’s yours alone. “VPS usage is permitted for individual traders running their own automated strategies or maintaining a stable trading environment,” the independent trading rules say, and they ban “Using shared hosting environments, shared VPS services, or managed account services where a third party accesses your account.” Our VPS comparison lists what other firms allow.

Sim-Funded, then a live review

Passing gives you a Sim-Funded account, and the payouts from it are real money. On a 50K MAX account you keep 80%, can request a payout once you’ve built a $2,000 buffer inside the account, must ask for at least $500, and can take no more than $1,500 in each of your first three payouts (payout eligibility). STEADY pays 90% after five winning days in each cycle.

A Live-Funded account trades real money, and FFN gives three versions of when you get one. The accounts page says “Live Review After 4 payouts on one account or 10 since the last live review”. The sim and live article says “Once you have 5 consecutive payouts on an account, you can apply to your risk manager.” The STEADY article says “After 5 payouts on an account, it goes to a live review.” In every version a risk manager decides.

The sim and live article also carries a condition for accounts bought after 1 July 2026: “When you are moved from sim-funded to live-funded, your sim-funded profits are forfeited.” Once live, you keep 90% with no consistency rule and no payout maximum, and professional market data at $126 a month per exchange comes out of the live balance. Our guide to sim-funded and live-funded accounts covers how this works across firms.

Where ROMER differs from FFN

We run ROMER, a funded-trader program for algorithmic and high-frequency traders, and we wrote this comparison. The ROMER terms in this section are planned.

FFN’s 5-second test is what keeps most HFT strategies out. At ROMER, HFT is allowed at every stage, along with other bots and algos, and you can trade by hand too. We ban spoofing and other manipulation, and the exchange’s own message limits apply. Where FFN lets you run a bot from your own VPS, a ROMER algo runs on our hardware inside the exchange’s data centre, an arrangement known as colocation.

Real capital comes after two simulated stages. The evaluation asks for a 6% profit target inside a 4% trailing maximum loss and a 2% daily loss limit, over at least 3 trading days. Verification then makes the algo pass again across at least 10 new trading days, to see whether the first result repeats on data it hasn’t seen. The best algos go on to trade our own capital on the real exchange. You keep 80% of real profits as an independent contractor, and funding isn’t guaranteed.

We plan to charge $249 a month for the $50K Pro plan, with no activation fee; FFN charges $160 a month for a 50K MAX account. Starter ($25K) is $149 and Elite ($100K) is $399. The monthly fee pays for your algo’s slot on our hardware at the exchange. ROMER is for futures and digital-asset derivatives.

Choosing between them

FFN fits a CME day trader who is flat by the close, trades by hand or runs a bot whose trades mostly last longer than five seconds, and likes having a Rithmic login. MAX pays out daily once the buffer is built, and STEADY avoids a subscription.

ROMER fits the strategies FFN’s HFT policy would fail, those that hold for a few seconds or less or depend on speed. It also suits a trader who wants an algo’s results checked on a second run of trading days before it trades real money.